Russia has ‘no motive’ to attempt murder of ex-spy, George Galloway tells RT

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Skripal, 66, and his daughter, in her 30s, were found slumped on a bench in Salisbury, England, at the weekend. He formerly worked as a double agent for the UK intelligence agency MI6 and was jailed in Russia in 2006 for spying for Britain. He was later released as part of a swap deal.

Most of the British mainstream media has been quick to draw parallels between Skripal’s collapse and the death of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko, who was poisoned more than a decade ago in London after drinking tea laced with radioactive polonium-210. But Galloway said Russian President Vladimir Putin would be “stupid” to murder someone on British soil so close to Russia’s March 18 presidential poll.

Saying current press coverage produces “fertile ground for conspiracy theories,” Galloway added there is no evidence of Russia having anything to do with the incident involving Skripal. “That doesn’t mean that there wasn’t a conspiracy, but there is certainly no evidence yet that there was a conspiracy, still less that the Russian state was involved,” Galloway said.